The UK has a comparatively mean state pension. We therefore need every pound put in a workplace pension to work as hard as possible. What benefits the consumer must always be the most important test applied to any pension change.

That is why your editorial (8 March) is right to call for the government to be braver than its predecessor and end the unnecessary restrictions on the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest). This new, low-cost pension scheme has been hobbled by the limit on how much can be saved each year and the ban on transfers in and out. Nest already faces the extra costs rightly imposed by its public service obligation to serve every employer, however unattractive to commercial providers. Yet it still manages low charges, good governance and standard-setting investment. These restrictions harm consumers, and there is now all-party support for the pensions industry to lose this veto.

Pension minister Steve Webb's ambition for a single "big fat pot" is exciting as it can potentially help consumers consolidate their savings in a way that helps employers and pension schemes run in the interests of their members. But ministers must again beware industry lobbying. Consolidating savings should not mean members losing out from transfers to unsuitable schemes with high charges. Nest and pensions auto-enrolment had to be created to deal with saver apathy and market failure over decades. We should not have to wait years to learn the same lessons with consolidation, but give Nest a central role in aggregating pots by inertia from the start.Brendan BarberGeneral secretary, TUC